Buée was a French priest belonging to a large group of émigrés, mainly aristocrats and clergymen who fled from France into England from 1792 onwards as a result of the French Revolution. He established himself in Bath, where he supported himself by publishing leaflets and articles in mathematics and science. By 1821, Buée was again in Paris working on a new edition of Dictionnaire des termes de la Révolution he had first published anonymously in 1792 before escaping to England.

Rare. This is a privately published offprint by Robert Clifford of his translation first published in the Philosophical Magazine (nos. 74-75, 1804) under the title "A letter from Abbé Buée to Mr. ****, on Mr. Romé de l'Isle and the Abbé Haüy's theories of crystallography." Originally written in French, Buée had authored the letter in order to contrast the differences between the crystallographic systems of Romé de l'Isle and Haüy, which at the time were both considered similar in nature. It is an important critique of Romé de l'Isle's system, which Buée characterizes as primarily descriptive, as opposed to Haüy's mathematically based system. Buée shows that Romé's selection of primitive forms was arbitrary, where as Haüy's was based upon direct observations of the crystals. The original article was reprinted in Nicholson's Journal (vol. 9, 1804) under the title "Outlines of the Mineralogical Systems of Romé de l'Isle and the Abbé Haüy: with Observations." There it is introduced by a letter from R. Clifford who translated it from Buée's original French. At that time Buée was in England having fled Paris and the Reign of Terror.